[Closed] Anyone been on a wine tasting day?

Not been myself but heard good reports about Sharpham near Totnes.

Bit far from Manc

Meh. It's in the UK...

I did my basic WSET qualifications tasting wines every week for a school year (on a night school course). We generally tasted 15 wines each week from different regions or countries, everyone on the course paid some money each week and the tutor bought the wines to taste.
I then went on to do the WSET Diploma thru my employer at the time.
The next level is Master of Wine, which only a few hundred people have achieved.
Maybe the best way to get into it is to join a local wine society or do a night school course (they usually start at beginning of Sept, like a school course).
If you have a local specialist wine shop, they might be able to put you in touch with the appropriate local wine enthusiasts, wine society or local supplier funded tasting events (you usually buy tickets to get into these events).

And watch out for people adding red food colouring to white wine. Apparently if can fool a bunch of middle class pretentious eejits 😀

That's "middle class whiney cockbags" to you sir. 🙂

Besides I suspect such a trick would just confuse most folk. Even to an uneducated palate like mine white wine doesn't taste or smell much like red.

Maybe if you went for a white that was based on a red grape variety?

You didn't see the tv programme then G?

Nah too middle class to watch TV. I just read about it The Guardian instead.

Ah right. So do you know the programme about which I'm talking or are you just being a middle class cockbag on purpose? 🙂

No genuinely didn't see it. Was it Beadle's About?

Maybe not a wine tasting day but for a good wine related day out and to experience the standard of English wine - Three Choirs Vineyard, in Gloucestershire straight down M6 and M5 from Manc
http://www.three-choirs-vineyards.co.uk/

'Adopted' the wife a vine there a few years ago
For something like £80 I think she sponsored it for a year (name plaque on some random plant, she thought it was good at least ;)) and we could visit as many times a year as we wanted for free. On first occasion we had a guided tour, wine tasting, a meal for two with a bottle of wine and some bottles to take away
Considering the (very nice) meal alone would have cost best part of £50-60 it seemed a very good deal at the time
The wine from what I recall was pretty decent but their sparkling wine was really nice, to extent we had it at our wedding a couple of years later

All the wine courses I've been on were just made up of people in the industry and/or people who just wanted to know a bit more about the wines they were enjoying drinking. Mostly just wine drinkers who wanted a bit of an education about wine. Like most other interests, social demographics didn't come into it, IME. 8)

Obviously, if you're not a wine drinker, you'll not be interested. If that excludes a whole group in society, that's their problem.

No genuinely didn't see it. Was it Beadle's About?

Mmmm-kay.

I vaguely remember a programme a few years back in which that woman with the frizzy hair who used to be on TV as a wine expert was shown to not be able to identify the same wines consistently. Or something.

Not too far from Manchester (Shrewsbury):

http://www.wroxetervineyard.co.uk/tours_experience.html

I've been with Mrs cxi - was a good day out

Quite a few gentlemen of the road congregate on a low wall near our local Bargain Booze. They all seem pretty experienced and I'm sure they wouldn't mind offering a verdict on the Petrus you brought along.

Isn't it funny how people who express a preference about wine are dismissed as snobs, but no one cares if you express a preference about cigarette brands, or toilet paper, or ketchup, or McDonalds versus Burger King.

If I'm having fish and chips I tend to go for a nice white...Lambrini, if the shops have it.

There's a Manchester Wine School that do evenings/days:
http://www.manchesterwineschool.com/

I got bought a tasting session recently but have yet to go on it (seems popular though as a lot of near future dates are booked up).